The Babies Have Discovered Wall Street

It seems New Yorkers can't get comfortable in one neighborhood without being told that a new neighborhood is the neighborhood to be in. Or not to be in, as the case may be. According to The New York Post, hot on the trail of a baby-trend story, the Financial District is the new Park Slope. This means that it's baby friendly. (Don't tell Jeremy Lin -- or do!)

Per The Post's Jane Ridley:

On a recent weekday morning by the New York Stock Exchange, 3-year-old Madeleine McMann rode her scooter to her Montessori preschool, expertly weaving through the crowds.

She glanced back occasionally to check that her mom, Karen, was following, but was unfazed by the bankers and office workers streaming out of the subways.

How wonderfully bucolic it all is downtown! How perfect for one's early morning constitutional stroller ride through the streets. According to stats released recently, there are more kids being born in downtown Manhattan. This was pronounced a "trend" back in January. But it might be a stretch to say, as the Post does, that "It’s official: The Financial District has become the new Park Slope." After all, isn't Park Slope more than just a bunch of babies in strollers?

Also, the FiDi seems possessed of questionable, non-Park-Slope-approved parenting skills: “Many of the luxury residential buildings are nothing but dogs and strollers,” says Ariel Cohen, executive vice president of Prudential Douglas Elliman. Who's watching those kids and walking those dogs!? But, seriously, if a developer builds moderately affordable luxury buildings aimed at financial types, they will come -- and have babies there.

Park Slopers, for their part, seem OK with the supposed ousting of their baby crown: Allison Pennell, a Park Slope mom, told The Atlantic Wire, "Let’s leave Park Slope to the self-righteous, aging former hippies, social workers, and Jonathan Safran Foer...let the derivatives dudes and richy bankers congregate in FiDi instead."

Not everyone is so happy, though. One baby-hating FiDi local told the Post, “These neighborhoods used to be fun,” he says. “And it’s not like we’re seeing any of these Wall Street babies making any money!” Hang in there, sir. Soon they will be, and there will be a trend piece on that. We guarantee it.

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